New Year's Eve fireworks: the Ann Leybourne incident

American Handgunner, July-August, 2004 by Massad Ayoob

Be able to access, and operate, your weapon with either hand. Most of us who teach the gun for a living do not recommend cocking revolvers, but in this case, it may have helped Leybourne achieve her critically important first hit with the only shot she was able to fire from her own weapon.

Be familiar with other weapons than your own: sometimes, the only thing you can fight for your life with may be an unfamiliar firearm. The rapist's weapon is described in the records only as a blue steel five-shot revolver loaded with four rounds of .32 Long ammunition, and fitted with black plastic grips and a one and three-quarter inch barrel, serial number B-14557. The nondescript gun was such an el cheapo it bore no maker's trademark, as if the manufacturer was ashamed to stamp its name on the thing. But what if he'd had an on-safe semiautomatic, which he knew how to operate but his victim did not? He might have taken his victim into the Void with him.

It's about the shot placement, stupid. Ellis was still fighting and trying to kill Leybourne after taking a mortal wound from her .38 Special, and she ended the fight with his less powerful .32. Two of those slugs found his heart, one perforating both ventricles and the other clipping the pericardium. The third hit him in the neck but missed anything vital. Even if blood supply is completely shut off, a man with a fully oxygenated brain can continue aggressive, purposeful activity for up to fourteen or fifteen seconds before everything goes black on him. Leybourne was correct to continue the fight with the rapist's own gun, and her center hits kept her alive during that critical interval.

Think tactically. A much less savory Chicagoan, Al Capone, is famous for having said, "A kind word and a gun will get you more than just a kind word." The flip side is also true. If Leybourne had just gone for her .38 when she first saw a drawn gun, she might have died on that frigid street. Instead, she bided her time, acted tactically, used what later became known ns Verbal Judo[TM] to get her antagonist off guard, and was able to even the odds when she finally did have to resort to her handgun.

The intended victim who is armed is more likely to survive. Even in 1973, an armed woman who wasn't a cop or security professional or licensed private investigator could not legally carry a concealed handgun anywhere in Illinois, including Chicago. Today, the situation is even worse: for many years, Chicago has banned even the purchase of handguns by its residents. Some other Illinois communities (led by Morton Grove) have done the same, including Wilmette, where a man who recently shot a dangerous home invader with his handgun was arrested for illegal possession of same. It is unlikely that today's Chicago Tribune newspaper would say of a female citizen who did now what Leybourne did in 1973, "She pulled a gun of her own and shot her way to freedom." Yet that's exactly how the Trib described the Leybourne shooting at the time.

Had her new job not allowed her to be legally armed, Ann Leybourne would have been just one more statistic on the long list of victims of the Friday Night Rapist ... a list that might have continued indefinitely instead of ending abruptly that night. We are reminded there are many cities where you can make a living, enjoy life, and legally carry the wherewithal to protect yourself and your loved ones.